TIME USE ON RECREATION AND LEISURE ACTIVITIESTime Use on Recreation and Leisure Activities (cat. no. 4173.0) will be released towards the end of 2009 and will present selected results from the 2006 Time Use Survey (TUS) on how people choose to spend their time. This publication focuses on how Australians use their free time and how the time spent on these activities have changed over time, since most sporting, recreation and leisure activities are undertaken during one's free time.

The major aims of the 2006 TUS were to measure the daily activity patterns of people in Australia and to provide time use profiles to describe the differences in the patterns of paid work and unpaid work across the community as people balance work, family, leisure and wider community obligations. Some comparisons have also been made with results from the 1997 survey to help identify changes in patterns of time use.

The survey found that in 2006, 85% of free time was spent on recreation and leisure activities. The most popular recreation and leisure activity was use of audio/visual media which includes watching television and DVDs, listening to the radio and CDs. Audio/visual media activities accounts for more than half of the time spent on recreation and leisure activities.

This product was previously titled Time Use on Culture/Leisure Activities, 1997 and was released as a brochure in 1999.